Mike's Melbourne and Tassie List

A good friend and colleague of mine is currently studying abroad in Australia on the same program that I did last spring. He has asked me to make some recommendations for his spring break travels to Melbourne, the Great Ocean Road, and Tasmania. So, without further ado:

MELBOURNE

• The downtown is pretty compact and it's easy to get around on foot. There's a lot of interesting architecture sprinkled throughout the city centre. Of course, seeing Federation Square (during the day and at night) is a must. 
• For a fun dining experience, I recommend heading to Lygon Street (it's sort of over by the Melbourne Museum and the Royal Exhibition Hall on the northeast corner of downtown). Lygon Street is basically all authentic Italian restaurants for about four blocks, both sides of the street. Go around 5 on a weekday and they will be offering you all sorts of deals to eat at their restaurants. Don't take the first deal, no matter how good it sounds. We ended up with free bruschetta and two free bottles of wine for the table - see if you can top that.
• Go to the ANZAC Memorial (south side of the river, near the Botanical Gardens) and go upstairs to the outside balcony - it's a great view over the city.
• We never made it down to St. Kilda, but it seemed to be a really popular beach suburb - probably similar to Manly Beach in Sydney. There's numerous options for public transport to get there from the centre city area.
• Look in the alleyways! Melbourne has tons of restaurant alleys that are just packed with different places to eat. It's a surprising city in that way.

GREAT OCEAN ROAD

• You CAN do it all in a day, you just have to keep a good pace and know that you can't SEE everything no matter how long you have.
• Step 1 - go to the Melbourne Visitor Centre in Federation Square and get all of the free maps and brochures you can find. Look at things and choose what looks interesting. Don't do this trip on a whim.
• LEAVE EARLY. Probably 7am would be a good target time if you're trying to do the drive in a day.
• I'd recommend skipping Torquay (unless you need a restroom stop or something), and make Bell's Beach your first stop (approximately an hour out of Melbourne).
• Anglesey's got a nice beach.
• Lorne has a lot of good lunch options, but I'd try to get there before the noon tour bus rush.
• Go to Erskine Falls. Look for the signs in Lorne. It's about a fifteen minute drive inland from Lorne, but it's worth it.
• There are a lot of places for pulling off the road to stop and take pictures. 
• Stop in Kennett River (don't blink or you may miss it) and look for koalas that hang out near the caravan park.
• In Apollo Bay, go up Marriner's Lookout Rd (another thing you have to keep your eyes peeled for). There are some awesome views from the top.
• We made it to the Twelve Apostles by 6pm, just in time to see a really brilliant sunset. I wish we would've had a little more daylight though so that we could've seen Loch Ard Gorge and some of the other formations further down.
• If you get to Port Campbell after 8, everything will be shut down. There's only a few restaurants there anyway.

TASMANIA

• Hobart is lovely. It's one of my favorite cities. So, take my personality and apply it to a city and you'll get Hobart. It is emphatically NOT Sydney or Melbourne in terms of excitement. If you find many pubs with people in them after 8 on a weekday I'd be pretty surprised. That said, it's a beautiful place.
• Definitely go walk down Salamanca Place in Hobart. Great area for shopping and eating and such.
• If you have time, drive to the top of Mt Wellington in Hobart. We weren't able to do that, and I regret it.
• We went to Freycinet National Park for a day. It's about three hours from Hobart at a leisurely pace. We got to the park around noon and had a full afternoon there. We hiked Mt Amos. I would recommend it only for those who really enjoy hiking. That's all I'm gonna say there. Wineglass Bay is a must. I believe there's a $20 or $25 fee to enter the park (you get a pass for your car at the Visitor Centre). I'd recommend talking to the people at the Visitor Centre about things to do if people don't want to hike Mt Amos (which is about a three hour time commitment).
• If you have another day, I'd suggest driving from Hobart down to Port Arthur on the Tasman Peninsula. I don't have many details here, but Port Arthur is one of the most historic sites in Australia, and the scenery along the way looked beautiful. I think there's a tourist office in Hobart that would have info on all that.
• Have some Cascade beer. It's brewed in Tasmania and it doesn't leave. Boag's is another Tassie classic.
• Tasmania sort of felt like the Twilight Zone of Australia. It has a way different feel from the mainland.

That's about all I can think of right now. Cheers, mate!

The Australian Pub

Australians do, in general, enjoy their beer, and the cultural institution of the pub is perhaps one of the nation's most important. Architecturally, Australian pubs share many characteristics in common with each other - more so than bars in the United States, for example. They are often simple but dignified buildings with nice shady verandahs and hotel rooms upstairs. Here are a few I encountered throughout my travels in Australia:

A nice two-story pub in Fremantle, Western Australia

Newport Hotel, Fremantle, Western Australia

Great Northern Hotel - just up the road from Lennox Head in Byron Bay, New South Wales

Telegraph Hotel - a splendid Art Deco pub in Hobart, Tasmania

Imperial Hotel, Murwillumbah, New South Wales

Oxford Hotel, Inverell, New South Wales

The Bells Hotel in Sydney's Woolloomooloo neighborhood (I doubt there's any Bell's on tap, sadly)

The aptly-named Australian Hotel in The Rocks area of central Sydney

The Empire Hotel, Inverell, New South Wales (For sale!)

Though the picture says otherwise, this is now the Mosman Hotel in the Sydney suburb of Mosman

This building in Tenterfield, New South Wales, began its life as a pub, but is now sadly and inexplicably an accountant's office

Exit Benedict

I am still stunned that our Holy Father has decided - no doubt after much time spent in prayer - to abdicate the Chair of St. Peter. Benedict XVI is in many ways dearer to me than John Paul II ever was. I reached a level of maturity (I will probably never claim to be mature) during Benedict's pontificate. His nearly eight year reign coincides roughly with my eight years in high school and college. Formative years for anyone, as I'm sure you'll agree.

I remember clearly the death of John Paul and the election of Benedict. We were up at my cottage for the weekend and I remember hearing it on the radio in our dining room. The next week was my spring break, which I spent with my grandparents up north, and - since my grandpa was and remains a news junkie - we listened to much of the coverage on CNN radio on the way to and from construction sites. I remember feeling not so much sadness as curiosity. It was a big deal and I knew it.

Benedict XVI was elected after recess one day the following week. I saw the coverage on a TV in a fifth-grade classroom. Though I was nearing the end of my eighth-grade year, I stopped in the room and watched as the pope appeared on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica for the first time. In the few years after, I sort of bought into the nonsense about him being a grumpy old man who was a hardline conservative (whatever that means) and honestly didn't pay him much attention. It wasn't until my freshman year at Ball State that I begin to truly discover who this pope was.

I read his first encyclical Deus Caritas Est in its entirety on a whim one day. I had been on the Vatican's website searching for some info for some Protestant neighbors of mine who had some question about the Church. It was a breath of fresh air into a stale spirit. This was not the type of writing I expected from a pope! It was easy to read, but profound in its insights. I was delighted, and my admiration for Benedict XVI, his spirituality, and his intellect has only increased since.

Having followed "the Catholic news" for awhile now, I am not as surprised as perhaps some others are that the pope has decided to step down. But, it is certainly shocking in its sheer lack of much precedent. The next month will be very interesting to say the least, and I look forward to the next conclave and the next man chosen to be the successor of St. Peter. May the Holy Spirit be a comfort to Pope Benedict and a guide to the College of Cardinals in the weeks to come.

Pugin in Tasmania

Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin was the premier Gothic Revivalist. Active throughout the latter half of the Nineteenth Century, primarily in Britain, Pugin breathed new life into ancient Gothic forms with great zeal. Though recognized first and foremost for his works throughout the British Isles, Pugin deserves some recognition for his small churches Down Under. St. Patrick's in Colebrook and St. John's in Richmond are two Tasmanian Catholic churches designed by A.W.N. Pugin, and they are quite refined in my estimation, despite their intimate scale.

St Patrick's, Colebrook, TAS

St. John's, Richmond, TAS